Writing Prompt Wednesday Anthology
by JamieSabriel
Summary: My collection of short stories written for /r/RWBY's Writing Prompt Wednesdays! [Although it's in a chapter format, these are wildly different stories and universes with each "chapter." They're posted in chronological order, with the prompt that sparked them as an author's note at the top.]
1. Cinder's Family Reunion

**A/N: Hi folks, Jamie here, or _Sabriel on the RWBY subreddit! If you're a regular over at the sub's Writing Prompt Wednesdays, you've probably seen some of my stories at one point or another. This is the entire collection, in chronological order!**

 **If you don't know what Writing Prompt Wednesdays are, that's a shame, you gotta get over there! Each week, three RWBY-related prompts are given to the sub, and peeps from all kinds of experience levels and backgrounds have the day to whip up a fun, short piece of fanfiction for it. It's great fun, try it sometime! The community is super welcoming and positive! [Even if you don't want to write, I recommend reading through all the awesome pieces peeps have written for them - there's a TON of great stuff.]**

 **I've taken to the challenge with gusto, and am excited to finally be sharing my work with the FNDM at large! Here's all of the stories I've written for WPWs so far, in chronological order and with the prompt that led to it preceding it in an author's note. Speaking of which, this one is getting lengthy, so without further ado, my first WPW response [and the first piece of creative writing I've shared in my adult life, woohoo]!**

 **WPW 3/7/18: Ozpin attempts to turn the tables on Cinder by planting false evidence implying that she's the long lost daughter of the _ Family forcing her to bond with them.**

 **This is picking up from the end of Volume 2, Chapter 5, where Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald are in their dorm room in Beacon, with Cinder sewing her infiltration outfit.**

* * *

"Don't worry, Mercury. We have a fun weekend ahead of us," Cinder cooed.

Emerald looked up from double-checking the timeline of events on her scroll. "Yeah, there's a LOT to prep this weekend, especially for Cinder. You didn't forget about the family reunion, right?"

In a rare display of being caught off-guard, Cinder stopped sewing immediately. "...what."

Emerald continued with more than a smidge of anxiety in her voice. "I...thought we talked about this? About the letter? You're supposed to make an appearance at your family reunion on Saturday night, the evening before the dance."

" _No_ ," Cinder snapped, "we did _not_ talk about any letter or addition to the itinerary."

Mercury and Emerald shared a brief, bewildered look as Emerald attempted to get any amount of her confidence back. She pulled a neatly-folded white letter with ornate copper trim from her blazer pocket. "...um, yeah...someone taped this letter to your door, claiming you're the long-lost daughter of the-"

"Give me that!" Cinder shouted as she leaned over and snatched the letter from Emerald's shaking hands. She skimmed the contents of the letter, eyes narrowing. With a minute crease of her eyebrows, the paper ignited and flared into ash. As Emerald gasped at this rare outburst from Cinder, the latter took a deep breath to calm herself. "I...don't believe I recognize that family name."

Setting her sewing project aside, Cinder arose from the bed and began pacing. "There can't possibly be any way this isn't a forgery. Perhaps a trap of some sort? The contents of the letter state that I'm their long-lost daughter, and they wanted to hold a family reunion in my name to welcome me back into the family...but how would anyone be able to prove my lineage to such a bloodline?

"I can't reason through any explanation other than these people are lying through their teeth, trying to make a fool of us...and for that, they must be _punished._ " Cinder's eyes glowed with the subtle activation of her Semblance, accentuating the quiet fury with which she spat that last word. Her two subordinates glanced at each other, each looking for some prompt to respond in the other's face.

Mercury was the first to speak. "Should we...add this to our plan?"

Cinder thought for a moment, visibly relaxing from her pacing. "No, I should attend this event alone. Not only would bringing you two generate suspicion, it would detract from my...stress relief."

"Do you mean 'murd-"

"Yes Mercury I mean ' _murder_ ,' thank you for your continued stupidity in this, and _all_ , regards."

Mercury rolled his eyes - Cinder's jabs are normally WAY more creative. She must really be irked...not that he would know what that felt like, of course.

"You two lay low for the time being. I'll go this alone, and beat some sense into those that would try to one-up us."

The two teenagers on the floor sighed. "Whatever you say, boss."

* * *

Cinder sauntered up to the door of the club where the "reunion" was being held in a private room. A gaudy neon sign blinked on and off in a rainbow of colors, proudly displaying the name of said club: "Junior's." A small roll of parchment underneath appended the welcoming sign with a sloppily-painted claim of "newly remodeled!"

The bouncer at the door gave her a once-over, then a multiple-over. "You here for the event?"

"Indeed I am. Where will I find it?"

"Room B52, up the stairs on the left side, go to the end of the hall," he continued, clearly more interest than her cleavage than her eye contact.

"Thanks...perhaps I'll see you around," Cinder replied, making sure to brush her superheated hand along his thigh as she passed him. The sound of him flinching and stumbling off his stool was recompense enough for his misplaced lust. It's rather difficult to see someone's expression of disgust if your entire field of vision is locked on their chest, so she felt justified in her...subtle dissuasion. Plus, it was _hilarious_.

She strolled across the dance floor with her head held high, refusing to make eye contact with any of the chaff that deigned themselves worthy to speak to her. She had but one goal in mind - the utter annihilation of the _fools_ that thought they could outsmart _her_. She was one of the most brilliant masterminds Remnant has ever seen. She was in the middle of unfurling such elaborate, _beautiful_ schemes, even her _schemes_ had schemes. She could NOT let this hubris stand!

Climbing the stairs, Cinder passed by more bodyguards with wandering eyes. _Well, at least these two have adorable dresses._ She shook her head to clear it - she was on a MISSION, godsdamnit. She couldn't let herself get distracted now. After she mops the floor with these _fools_ , she'll double back and locate the twins. _A gesture of celebration after a well-earned victory_ , she justified internally.

Her momentary distraction prevented her from hearing what one of the twins said into her radio earpiece. _"She's approaching your position."_

She arrived at room B52, hearing some sort of heavy metal guitar riff blasting from behind the heavy door. After a moment's consideration as to whether or not a knock would even be heard, be it by a hand or a jackhammer, she decided to just walk in. With her Semblance ready to heed her back and call and incinerate every living being in this room, she swung open the door and _leapt_ in.

And found it empty.

"What…" was all the sentence Cinder could form before she heard the rustle of feathers - _wait, feathers…?_ \- followed by the door slamming shut behind her. She wheeled around.

"Welcome back to the family, _'long-lost Branwen daughter,'_ " said the ruggedly-handsome man who appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and _of course_ was one of two people blocking her direct path to the one exit from the room.

The crimson-clad woman beside him rolled her matching eyes. "I _cannot_ believe this stupid plan worked, brother. Old man Ozpin really outdid himself this time."

 _Ozpin...DAMN._ Cinder realized her folly immediately and readied her flames.

The woman raised her hands in a placating gesture. "Ah ah ah, _daughter dearest,_ don't you want to meet the rest of the family before the fun begins?"

Fast as lightning, her gauntleted hand dropped to the hilt of her sword and unsheathed it. In one fluid motion, she slashed downward in the air next to her, which seemed to cause...reality to tear like paper. As quickly as this weird visual trick bolted through Cinder's vision, a swirling red vapor took its place. _Some sort of...portal?_

Her suspicions were confirmed immediately, as a group of a dozen seemingly ragtag lowlifes stepped through into the room, filing in to surround Cinder. The last person to step in had a much more put-together look - _and weapon,_ Cinder noted - and smirked at Cinder as she entered.

"Y'know," she began in a velvety-smooth voice as she casually inspected her massive chakrams, "I always DID want some Maiden powers."

 _WHAT!? How did she… HOW…_

As the Branwen clan descended on her, Cinder had the strength of character to voice her final thought out loud.

" _Fuck_."

* * *

 **A/N 2: Thanks for reading, favorite/follow/review/do whatever you feel like!**


	2. Jaune's Tale of Vengeance

**WPW 3/14:** **"She's right in front of you, Jaune. Take the vengeance you so desperately desire."**

* * *

Here's the thing about being partners with Pyrrha.

Sure, she's the kindest person I've ever met, and she took pity on my foolish quest to learn how to fight on my own without, y'know... literally any of the tools unlocked to prevent me from getting wasted by a baby Creep, and she's, uh...basically a goddess in every way, but here's the thing: she's also _smart._

"But Jaune," you might say, "why say something like that!? How could you be so insensitive and possibly sexist by implying that her beauty and hot- er, _martial prowess_ are the only things sugah's got goin' on?"

Well _back the fun bus the fuck up and take a seat_ , plot-convenient theoretical stranger, and I'll tell you my tale...of _vengeance_.

* * *

Rewind to two months ago, when team JNPR made the awesome decision/ _fatal mistake_ of going to team RWBY's dorm rager to celebrate us all not flunking out of first semester or whatever. Maybe I was really the only one in danger of that... _whatever_ , over it.

Drinks were had, games were played...more drinks were had. As is always the case, more alcohol meant fewer clothi- _inhibitions_ [and more volume, which might be relevant? I forget...tales of vengeance are _tough._ How has the HuntsMan done this so many times?], and no partygoer was more affected by this fact than dear, sweet, innocent Pyrrha.

"Heyyy...Hey. Hey. Hey. HEY." Pyrrha practically-shouted to the room. "I jus thought of somethin fun."

Never before that moment did I believe that one seemingly-innocuous drunken statement from the world's sweetest girl could cause seven hunters-in-training to grind to a screeching halt with looks of absolute terror on their faces.

After a moment of silence [likely to mourn the death of everyone's dignity from what this night would inevitably turn into], Yang was the first to recover. "Pyrrha NO, we're _not_ going skinnydiving off Vale's cliffs again. Who _knows_ who's profiting off that video!"

"EWWWWWWWWW YANG YOU SAID IT WAS SAFE!" Ruby screeched.

Yang chose her words carefully. "Yeah…...from…...Grimm?" Silver eyes attempted to use the powers of Glare to bore a hole through Yang's head, but the benefit of being someone's sister is that you're immune to all of their tricks. Yang giggled at Ruby's lackluster attempt to destroy her brain with a single look [she wasn't Weiss, after all] and gave her a playful nose-flick. Ruby's squeal of indignation was not enough to derail the chaostrain that Pyrrha was intent on dragging them all onto, however.

"Nonononono. No. That was fun but not enof. Not en...uff. Enough. Fun, that is. Listen, okay? Lissen." Pyrrha has this remarkable ability to look totally sober in all ways, but at the expense of all that drunkenness being stored on her tongue. Even that, however, was not enough to still the clarion word which ushered forth a veritable smorgasbord of reactions from me and my peers.

" _Twister_."

Like thunderclouds gathering at breakneck speed before peals of laughter rent the sky asunder, Yang and Nora lit up with shiteating grins. The latter zoomed away and, catching Ren by the bicep mid-sprint, barrelled out the door to head for our closet where the fate-sealing game was kept. Ruby glanced at Weiss and turned a shade of red I'd only ever seen on her cloak, while Weiss furrowed her brow everyone thought was totally adorable- er, _totally menacing and intimidating_ ["Hey!"] and inquired as to what said suggestion even meant. Blake, sitting in the corner of the room with a book in one hand and a Solo cup in the other, finally looked our way, rolled her eyes, and took a sip of what could have been tea of the black variety or the Long Island Iced variety. I couldn't tell...I could _never_ tell.

As Yang caused Weiss to blush furiously with the lewd gestures she was using to describe the throwdown that was about to go down, I had a gnawing worry at the back of my mind. Pyrrha, at her sweet, innocent, absolutely vindictive heart, was a competitor. She lived and breathed with fighting spirit, and although she remained humble at most times, there was no way she was going to go down without a fight...even with something as innocuous as the borderline-third-base party game we were all about to be subjected to.

Much to Yang and Pyrrha's chagrin, Blake stayed seated where she was and offered to be the spinny-wheel-thing-person. [ _Is_ that a Long Island, then? _Can_ she even stand up? Too many pieces were falling into place...] Nora and Yang tried removing Ruby's cloak, complaining that it'd give everyone else an unfair disadvantage. They were met with growls so fierce it scared the laughter out of them. Weiss was limbering up with some child's pose in the corner, Ren was zenning out on his bed in preparation for the battle to come, and Pyrrha was looking over everyone with a -predatory- _totally pleasant and not unnerving_ smile.

After a couple minutes of growing impatient with her baby sister's attempts to intimidate her by way of cuteness, Yang declared she was going first. Nora and Pyrrha whooped for joy that the game was finally commencing, and Blake, with her typical air of disinterest, instructed Yang to put her right hand on red.

The battle had begun.

Nora was next - ever the aggressor, he slammed her left foot down on the blue dot IMMEDIATELY adjacent to Yang's hand. They locked eyes; Nora had that look on her face like she had just eaten a lightning bolt and was about to throw a cafe at you, whereas Yang released a guttural growl that made my sternum vibrate. _Oh shit,_ I thought, _this boat gonna get ROCKED._

Ruby, ever the shy one, placed her left foot on the green dot in the corner farthest from the dueling powerhouses. Little did she know she was setting herself up for failure. Any pro knows that you start as close to the middle as you can, lest you be unable to reach the dots necessary to fortify your position! Someone with a taller stature like Pyrrha could potentially pull that off, but not Teeny Red Shy-ding Hood. [Don't tell her I called her that...please?]

Weiss noticed her leader's rookie mistake right away, and harrumphed at her as she walked by, gracefully placing her left palm on a yellow dot in the center. I was next, and took a position in the southeast quadrant, just a few dots from Weiss, Yang/Nora, and Ruby each. Might as well give myself some options for when the fight gets heated.

Ren resigned to his own lackluster position in northwest corner, presumably already accepting defeat, but several among us already knew of his abilities to gain advantages in compromising combat situations...this battlefield would be no different, I'm sure. Pyrrha rounded off our roster, placing herself close to Weiss and Ruby, not far from my position. _Oh crap, they are DONE for._

Fifteen minutes and fifty-six moves later, and we already had our first fatalities. True to form, Pyrrha had wiped the floor with Ruby and her precarious predicament, with Weiss close on her heels. Ren was giving her a run for her money, however, dipping into a low ninja crouch that covered nearly two rows of circles on the northern end of the field. He'd be one of the last ones standing, for sure.

Yang and Nora, as you can probably imagine, were locked in a weird and totally NOT super hot wrestling match for dominance in the middle-ish of the board, and both Pyrrha and I had to weave in between them. I'm no slouch at Twister, but even I knew when I was beat. Pyrrha and I were both in roughly-upright positions, though precariously-balanced ones, for sure. Yang's left foot was occupying the green circle in front of Ren's face, while her right foot was on a yellow one closer to the center. This caused her to have a sort of splayed push-up position over Nora, who was frozen mid-crabwalk under her and around Pyrrha's feet.

Tensions were high as we awaited our fate to be announced by the Grand Arbiter of Suggestive Positions [the title was Blake's idea, not Yang's, if you can believe it]. My turn was next. I had no idea how to get out of the semi-twist I was in. It was as if I was caught and frozen in midair mid-breakdancing, and the strain on my calves was starting to be unbearable even through my Aura.

I did have a couple moves available that could ease some of the tension, but more that would worsen it. Two moves could set me up to relieve me of the pressure I was feeling currently but be a disaster for positioning further on down the line. There WAS, however, one thing that the Grand Arbiter could call that would be simultaneously thrilling and terrifying.

There was a blue dot totally exposed in between the wild tangle of Yang and Nora - one that, if I were to place my left foot there, I'd not only instantly relieve the bulk of the twist-pressure that was making me sweat enough to drown a houseplant, but I'd force them to have to deal with the pillar of my calf cutting straight through the middle of their spaghetti-western rivalry. I can feel in my gut the wordless pact they'd then make to break me in the most humiliating way possible in light of that decision, however, so I'm much more in favor of plan B.

Pyrrha looked to be holding her own, but the alcohol had caused her to make some questionable choices. Currently, her feet were both planted on yellow dots _adjacent to one another_ [come on Pyrrha, amateur hour ended when Rubes was knocked down! Didn't you get the memo!?] while her arms were reaching too far behind her to get at red dots. Directly under her midsection there was another totally exposed blue dot. It would be a trickier operation, but if I could snake my leg out to slide my foot onto that blue dot, I don't think there would be a move that Pyrrha could use to get out of the hell she brought upon herself.

Man, wouldn't _that_ be something? After so many months of being defeated by Pyrrha in spars and games in equal measure [I didn't even _know_ you could checkmate someone in two moves!], it'd be _so satisfying_ to show my team...my _friends_ that I could finally win on my own. I can see it now, everyone lifting my up and carrying me through the halls of Beacon, cheering my name and singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" at the top of their lungs, Goodwitch finally looking at me like I'm not a total failure…

I shook my head to snap out of my daydream. I didn't have the time for lollygagging - _I had a war to win!...o_ r, y'know, try to make it to any of the seven impossible locations left on the map and lose horribly. None of my wildest dreams could come true unless the Grand Arbiter called out -

"Left foot blue."

 _Un-Grimm-humping-believeable. The Hour of Jaune is HERE!_

I looked at the dot in the center of Yang and Nora first. They followed where my eyes were leading, and snapped their heads up in unison to give me some _powerful_ death-glares. I had no reservations about whether or not Nora actually _would_ throw a cafe at me in that moment. I made a show of backing off from that thought, and turned to the circle under Pyrrha.

Pyrrha, who unlocked my Aura so I didn't get brutally murdered during initiation. Pyrrha, who's trained me every night for months so I can catch up to the rest of the team. Pyrrha, the sweetest, loveliest girl I've ever had the pleasure of being friends with.

Pyrrha, who I was going to _mercilessly obliterate for the first time, ever._

She seemed to read my thoughts even as I formed them, and looked at me like a cow looks at an oncoming train. "Jaune, heeeeey, Jaune...uh, you're pretty?"

I hesitated for a moment. Should I really do this? What will happen between us if I take her out here? Would it change our relationship? _...forever!?_

Then, another thought came unbidden to my mind, as I thought of all the approximately infinite times she bested me so thoroughly: _She's right in front of you, Jaune. Take the vengeance you so desperately desire!_

So I did.

I twisted around and slammed my foot down on that dot. The rest of the battle was a frenzied blur, and over before the minute was up. Pyrrha was first to fall, having not been able to recover from the deathblow I dealt her. Yang was next, but she took Nora down with her so she could call it a draw until the night/end of her days, and Nora kicked my feet out from under me as she went down, leaving just our resident ninja to slowly stand from his crouch on the mat.

I was over the moon! I can't believe it, I finally bested Pyrrha Nikos, the Invincible Girl! I was so ecstatic that I didn't even mention seeing Ren covertly slip Blake the thousand lien when he thought nobody was watching! I was too enamoured by the fact that I finally had something to lord over Pyrrha.

Something that, for the coming weeks, I made no small amount of references to.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just Pyrrha's nerves I got on, it was _everyone's._ So, when the entirety of the rest of team JNPR, along with team RWBY, conspired against me to ensure I was in my room right when the window _"accidentally"_ broke because Nora _"accidentally"_ fired Magnhild when she was cleaning it in the room, and Pyrrha _"accidentally"_ hoisted me up by my belt buckle so she and Weiss could use their Semblances to _"accidentally"_ propel me from the room into the Emerald Forest below, I really should have seen it coming.

As I blinked out of sight like a distant star, I could hear Pyrrha shout "I'm sorry!" to me in her usual singsong way.

For the first time since meeting Pyrrha, however, I detected not even an iota of sincerity in her words.


End file.
